NOTE: This was written awhile ago, but then was left unfinished until I could get back to it! So this all happened the Last week in September.
Last week was a amazing, crazy, and fun week! On Tuesday Brent and I packed the girls off to Grandma and Grandpa Culbertson house and we hit the road to Fort Jackson South Carolina! We were on our way to see Dane for the first time in 10 weeks. We made good time, found our hotel, and then Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner (we chose them cause they put both the Braves AND Cardinals game on for us to watch) The next morning we were up and at the Army Post by 8:30 anxiously awaiting the start to Family Day. It was a very emotional morning for all, the excitement and anticipation was so thick in the air you could almost touch it will all the Moms, Dads, Wives, children, etc waiting to see their soldiers. While we were waiting for the program to start we got the call we had been waiting for...Dane passed his last PT Test that very morning and would defiantly be graduating this week!
The ceremony was short and emotional (they do this every week and understand we don't really care about what he has to say, we WANT TO SEE OUR SOLDIERS!) We met Dane at his barracks, Brent didn't even recognize him when we was walking straight towards us! We had the rest of the day to spend with Dane on Post. We did EVERYTHING trying to cram as much time together in as possible. We went to the PX to get him somethings. Then we had lunch at Burger King (Dane's first junk food in weeks...it didn't settle to well...) then we went to the BCT (basic combat training) Museum where it took us through the phases of BCT and Dane was able to show us what they did and some things that were different for him. Then we hit the bowling alley for an hour. After that we went to the Solomon Center where they have tables and snack vender's, video games (the first the soldiers had seen in 10 weeks!) and a rock wall (Brent and I climbed the rock wall, Dane said he's done that enough in training...) Then Dane treated us to a round of mini golf. Later that evening we had dinner and took him back to his barracks.
The next day was Graduation. There was a 45 min ceremony where they gave out awards to various members of the companies, one unexpected thing was they had about 8 soldiers who became citizens that day be completing BCT and they did their oath right there at graduation!
After graduation we got to take Dane off post! As we drove through the gates you could tell Dane felt tense, he said he kept waiting to get in trouble for leaving! We took him around to Best Buy and Walmart to buy a laptop (apparently that is a big thing for the new graduates to do, there were soldiers EVERYWHERE!) Lunch at McDonald's then to a movie theater to watch Captain America. After another quick trip to Walmart to buy some new music we had dinner at Longhorn Steak house (if anyone knows Dane and wants to know how much he changed...he ordered the SMALLEST steak on the menu! Civilian food didn't agree with him to well) We headed back to the barracks to hang out and help him finish packing. Then we said our goodbyes and headed off to Savannah. Dane was put on a Bus Friday morning and shipped up to Fort Lee Virginia where he is still in holding waiting for classes. He did get word that he will be getting Christmas Exodus and should be home for about 2 1/2 weeks in December!
Later, I'll post about our Savannah Trip!
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